St Mary's

John the Baptist like to paint a colourful picture, didn’t he? Broods of vipers; eternal fire; cutting down the bad trees; keeping the good wheat and burning the inedible left over bits– which is incidentally a good fertiliser so I didn’t quite get that metaphor, John. Nonetheless, John was making his point that the ‘reign of heaven’ is here and now and you had better get on board.

I’m told by my biblical exegetic consultant Terry Fitzpatrick, that in Matthew’s gospel, the ‘reign of heaven’ really doesn’t have anything to do with heaven, but is a circumlocution for a very real sense of social justice here on earth. John the Baptist lived in a society that had an economic top down trickle approach – if the people on the top are well off, their good fortune will somehow naturally trickle down to the poor on the bottom of the heap. There is no need for the wealthy to direct relief or services to those in poverty or even think about them – they just need to keep making money however they can and everyone else should be ok – right?

This is something that we know here in Australia, just doesn’t work. Just prior to the economic downturn of the last 2yrs, we had seen over a decade of very steady growth here in the Lucky Country. We know when business is doing well because the cost of everything goes up for all of us – fuel, food, utilities, housing – the very things we need to live. While the Clive Palmers of the world are raking it in, those surviving on meagre incomes are now paying more for their goods and services without seeing much increase in their pay or pension. There is no trickle down here.

The community that produced Matthew’s gospel believed that heaven was an ideal place where a fair go was guaranteed for all. They argued that heaven didn’t have to wait – it wanted to see justice for everyone, particularly the poor, now. The most vulnerable cannot be ignored; their paths must be made straight. This is the reign of heaven, here on earth. As the saying goes, a society is measured by how it treats its most vulnerable members.

Working at Micah Projects, this is something I can relate to. I’ve worked there for six and half years now and I am constantly and continuously amazed at the work of my colleagues and our achievements as an organisation to bring about real change for people who experience exclusion, poverty, injustice and social isolation. Our efforts aim to ensure individuals and families have a home, an income, access to healthcare and education, that they can experience safety and dignity and connect with their community of choice. We have something of an unwritten mandate at Micah Projects that in this work we will do whatever it takes, for as long as it takes to get there, with no exclusions. This is the work of justice, here and now, and I always feel so privileged to be a part of it.

Every year at Micah Projects seems to get bigger than the last and 2010 has been huge! As always, we have felt the presence of the St Mary’s Community walking with us.

We have so many highlights from the year and I’ve been asked to share some of them with you. I’m going to start with a highlight that I believe actually reflects today’s gospel.

Our Participate in Prosperity service is the first time Micah Projects has worked directly on linking people with employment and training. The team supports families who are homeless or at risk of homelessness and young parents where the parent or parents have experienced long term unemployment. This service works to address an individual’s barriers to employment such as supporting someone to attend training by linking them to childcare, purchasing their books, uniforms or equipment and helping them with filling in all the right forms. This work integrates social and economic responses so that disadvantaged families can move out of poverty.

We experienced another office move this year. Lotus Place is where we operate our Forgotten Australians Support Services and it had been based at 24 Merivale St for several years before an end of lease necessitated a move –to 16 Merivale St! The move was seamless and the new space is much larger and allows for more group activities, classes and social gatherings to take place. One year on from the Apology delivered by the then Prime Minster Kevin Rudd to Forgotten Australians and British Child Migrants, life goes on, and our services change and adapt to the changing needs of the people we support.

At the Brisbane Homelessness Service Centre, we have seen considerable growth in the number and variety of visiting services. People who are homeless or at risk of homelessness can come to one place to meet a range of their needs including primary and mental healthcare, income advices, legal advice and housing support. Most of the volunteer health practitioners at the Brisbane Homelessness Service Centre are members of St Mary’s, and we thank them for their considerable efforts.

Our homelessness services continue to house people and support them to maintain their housing. Never has this work been more visible that than in the 50 Lives 50 Homes campaign. We set out on this campaign to end homelessness for as many people who sleep rough as we can, but we set the target of housing the most vulnerable 50 as we thought this seemed an achievable number. The campaign has recently reached a major milestone of housing the 40 person. When we reach 50, we will not stop – after all, we have nearly 260 people who are homeless and sleep rough in Brisbane – we will just reset our goal onto the next 50 and then the next 50 and so on. We thank the many volunteers from St Mary’s who have contributed to this work and those of you who have donated furniture and cash so we could assist people to establish their homes. Our relationship with the Mater Health Services has been pivotal in this work and we thank them for their partnership.

The spotlight is very much on this work because it is so groundbreaking and captures people’s attention, but the rest of our homelessness services go on, housing individuals and families every day. The Homelessness and Housing Fund continues to be a vital resource in this work.

The 7^th Annual Moonlight Magic Dinner Dance was once again a giant hit and the biggest one yet – over 750 people were jammed into the Brisbane Convention and Entertainment Centre – the dance floor overflowed all night. Half of the guests were people who experience disadvantage, many of them living with a disability or mental illness. This is one of the greatest social inclusion vents you will ever go to – it is truly magical.

Our efforts to create opportunities for social inclusion saw a new activity this year – the West End Dining Club. Each Tuesday evening, about 50-60 dinner guests gather to share a home style meal. The meal has been prepared by volunteers and people who are supported by Micah Projects. Half of the people who attend the meal are people who have recently made the move from homelessness to home or experience social isolation, while the other half are people from the general community, many of them St Mary’s members. The Christian tradition made the sharing of a meal the single unifying ritualistic act – the communion of the Christian community. Coming to the table, we are all equal.

We recently celebrated a momentous milestone in the life of the Romiga program. This program supports three women whose significant disabilities meant they have spent most of their in an institution. This institution was closed down and the Queensland government approached Micah Projects and the St Mary’s Community asking that we support these women to live in the community. It has been ten years now since Roberta, Michelle and Geraldine moved out into their own home. Their journey as women discovering life in the community has been amazing. For example, Michelle joined a walking group, and although she cannot speak, she has formed relationships and bonds with the people in that group. Many of them came to the celebration.

As we end the year, it is once again that time when the St Mary’s Community and Micah Projects work together to deliver food hampers and fresh fruit platter to individuals and families who need them. We try to make sure there is enough This tradition is about 13 or 14 years old now. It would be remiss of me to stand up here and not do a plug, so can I just say that we have flyers with the details about how to give towards the Hamper Appeal outside and we now have volunteer registration forms you can fill out if you would like to be a part of packing and/or delivering hampers.

In 2011, we look forward to watching the Brisbane Common Ground project’s construction on Hope Street. Many of you probably park on the street to come to mass on the weekend so don’t forget to check it out as it goes up. Construction is due to officially begin this week and we’ll expect the top storey to go on in about October, November next year. We hope you will continue along this journey with us.

From all of us at Micah Projects, we wish you all a very safe and happy Christmas.